The "NotRod" 6spd DGGM '94 Roadmaster Wagon Refurbishment Album

Dark Grey-Green Metallic. It's one of the more-rare colors for these cars, and was shared with the Impala SS in 95-96, but the Roady had it first in 1994. Neat color that looks especially nice over the tan interior for contrast.

 

2/19/19 - Planning repairs and mods on the 6spd wagon refurbishment. Going to replace the scratched gauge cluster lense and install the Buick tri-shield decal on the cluster face. Also have the actual round Buick emblem for the steering wheel, along with SEM paint for the wheel. Have non-worn front seatbelts, two climate control heads, hopefully one with working button backlights, new black decals for the bodyside moldings, and new hatch glass struts. Also dug out the silver paint-pens to re-do the dash trim. I've also got a good lower plastic driver's side door panel to replace the cracked one. Will try to use the better UPPER door trim from the car now with the non-cracked lower door panel. I "built" the same door panel in red on my '96 wagon. Lots to do!


The gauge cluster lens has a deep scratch above the steering column, so will be installing this decent replacement. Just polished it. Also will be adding the Buick tri-shield decal the the Camaro cluster face, which is a great little detail that I did on my white wagon.


Round emblem on the top is for the steering wheel. It's metal, and came off the pre-94 Buick wheels. Looks a LOT nicer than the interior-color emblem the 94+ wagons have. The lower tri-shield decal will be added to the Camaro gauge cluster face.

Checking out dash lights on the 6spd wagon. The Camaro cluster lights work perfectly. These came from a '93 Camaro, so have the yellow backlight colors and orange needles. The cluster in my '96 wagon had the white backlights, and I added white needles on my '96. Fun to compare them. My only mod here will be adding that tri-shield Buick decal above, under the fuel and temp gauges.



The backlights for the buttons on the original climate control head are out, so hoping one of these spare heads will have good lights.



You can see the rear wiper and window button lights down low here, but what you can't see if the headlight switch, which is in the MIDDLE of this pic. Will have to see if I can figure out how to replace this bulb


The seatbelts in the car are both frayed, and these are good used replacements. I replaced these on my white '96 wagon already, and other than breaking the mounting bolts loose, it's not a hard job.


The hatch glass stays up, but barely. These will fix that!



This is the black tape for the chrome bodyside molding. This was used in place of the trim that always falls off. Just need to re-do a few areas.


I bought this SEM paint to re-do the worn steering wheel, and the silver paint markers are for the dash outline trim. It's all in the details!


The first rule of ownership of a 94-96 Roadmaster is you NEVER slam the door on these cars. The SECOND rule of ownership of a 94-96 Roadmaster is you NEVER slam the door on these cars!! Typical crack seen here on the 6spd wagon now.


HAPPILY I have a perfect replacement.

RARE good lower plastic driver's side door panel to replace the cracked one on the car now. Will try to use the better UPPER door trim from the car now with the non-cracked lower door panel. I "built" the same door panel in red on my '96 wagon by taking two and making one. This alone is a good project.



Oh the PROJECTS we have on this car!

-Texas Mike

 

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

 

The HVAC control heads--are the bulbs soldered into the circuit board as they are on the Delco/Delphi radios? I went to replace the bulbs in a spare radio, found the stupid idiots decided to solder the bulbs in! For what? .5mm more clearance between the board and chassis?

 

2/20/19 - wanted to replace lens on gauge cluster and add tri-shield Buick decal to cluster face, but lense was GLUED ON, so had to settle with polishing the existing lense. I got a good bit of the scratch out. Looks much better!


This tiny bulb is the backlight for the headlight switch. Parts store doesn't stock bulbs this tiny. I miss Radio Shack. Will nab these at the salvage yards from now on.



Replaced the broken aftermarket foglight switch. Had limited choices as the parts store...this one is black with a chrome tip...was trying to get something that didn't look TOO odd...



Cleaned the dash bezel and repainted all the chrome trim lines, and the Roadmaster dash emblem. Paint pens and a steady "somewhat" hand! Ha!










Installed the new climate control head in the 6spd wagon. Works great and nice to have working backlight buttons again!



Dash cleaned from top to bottom, new climate control head installed, polished the Camaro gauge cluster lense, installed new fog light switch, installed cleaned dash bezel with chrome trim repainted, and added Buick emblem to steering wheel.




Was too cold to paint or steering wheel would have gone re-dyed tonight too. That's next.

Having fun polishing the rougher edges on this cool old hot rod....err...NotRod.

-Texas Mike

 

Andrew you can actually remove the two outer-edge bulbs on the climate control on these...learned that last night when I took the head out. I'm better the one inside can be changed too, but I did not crack the case open, just installed one of the spare heads that came with the car...and thankfully, it worked!

 

Pretty cool wagon, nothing like rowing gears in a longroof.
Ken.

 

Well, that radio was out of an '04; I asked because of the lighting on my '00 Century's HVAC panel. Wouldn't ya know it, both of the fluorescent displays (shift quadrant/odom, and HVAC display) are having problems lighting? I figure, if I'm pulling them for that, I'll try swapping in new bulbs at that time.

 

2/22/19 - Had an EVENTFUL night with the NotRod project. Started by removing and replacing the driver's-side seatbelt, which was worn and frayed. I'd done this project before on my own '96 Roady wagon, so I knew the routine, but forgot to take into account that THIS car came from the land of salt...the lower seatbelt bolt that bolts to the floor beside the driver's seat was frozen, and I mean FROZEN! I finally got it out buy putting my torx socket on an adapter so I could use my breaker bar, and I actually managed to TWIST my torx socket slightly before that bolt broke free. CRAZY. But it came out, and I installed a used but still very nice replacement belt. Oh and the other two bolts, on the B-pillar, came right out. Again a pain but really nice replacement.







I'd invited my "other kids", Lili and Joseph down from Temple for the weekend for the big Radwood Austin 80s-90s-only car meet. They showed up about 8:30pm, and Lili then spent the next three hours in the garage with me working on the wagon. She used three different colors of artist paints, and touched-up the woodgrain all over the car. Really blended will, and while you can see the touch-ups when you look up close, from 2-3 feet back the car looks TONS better. We also touched up all the worn black areas on the door panel switchplates and painted the Concert Sound II lettering under the door speakers. Also repainted the MAF sensor black, replaced the radiator cap and rusty bolts on the fan shroud, and added a much-needed decal to make folks smile! Lastly I added the GS emblem to the grill...looked naked without it, and finally polished the headlights. Car is really looking good!










2/23/19 - Daytime pics of the touched-up and detailed wagon from Radwood Austin. The NotRod was a HUGE hit. Everyone did a double-take when they realized it was a stick.











I've posted more pics and the Facebook Album link to the 400+ car pics from Radwood here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10218347249183278&type=3 and in the Car Show section as well.

More updates to follow!

-Texas Mike

 

Nice work Mike. Good to see your "other kids" It looks like Lili did a nice job with the detail work.

 

Nice touch with the underhood sticker. This car needs a vanity plate...either 'DGGM GS' or 'GS STIK.'

 

WELL I guess it's time I updated the NotRod chain here. I still have the car, and will for a bit longer, but it's coming along!

WELL since the last update I've now replaced the faulty airbag/horn button and re-dyed the steering wheel.

Before:



Working:








Re-Installed:

 

More work done. Put my 11-year-old Tuck to work replacing the Honda headlight switch bulb. And YES we removed the steering wheel which you DO NOT have to do, but I was afraid we'd scratch it when pulling the dash bezel:










Finished this off by installing a USB plug in the added power socket. FYI that little light comes on whenever the car is running, so it's not too shocking that those bulbs burn out.

 

Next I replaced the worn-off brake-release handle and installed the better turn signal lever.

Crummy pic but you can see how most of the writing on the brake release was worn off. With the stick this lever gets a lot of use!


Salvage yard lever installed.



Then installed the not-perfect but much better turn signal lever. Hardly worn at all but a little sun-faded (Texas).

 

Installed the new compass mirror. Great Mod! Find a non-OnStar Chevy HHR with a sunroof. Mirror has auto-dimming/dome-reading lights and digital compass.




Here are the stock auto-dimming and light, but no compass, mirror, and the compass mirror from the HHR. The stock mirror on the Notrod was loose internally and had a burned-out reading light. Replacement mirror is tight and works great!


Snip off the plug from the salvage-yard Chevy HHR when you grab a mirror and leave some wiring, and here is how to wire these in. NOTE, some HHRs has regular bulbs for reading lights and some have LED reading/dome lights. This one had regular bulbs, while the one I put in my 96 Roady has LEDs. The wiring below is the same for both. I think the regular bulbs match the rest of the interior lights in our Roadmasters better, but if you want to be "modern" the LED ones look cool.

#13 Red - 12+ ignition (Pink or Red on Roady)
#9 Green - back up lamps (Green or Brown on Roady)
#8 Black - ground (Black, Roady)
#6 Dk blue/white - dome lamps 12+ (orange on the Roady)
#1 Gray - dome lamps ground (dark blue/white on the Roady






This is a GREAT mod!

-Texas Mike